JOIN USIn the shadows of Sahyadri
Welcome to the densest jungles in all of Sahyadri, Jenukallu Gudda. We were driving into the heart of the jungle on our bikes. There was no easy approach as the trail passed through a dense forest. The roads are manageable, but at certain points, they are challenging for bikers during monsoon. The last three km was entirely covered with mud and boulders and was quite difficult to navigate. Jenukallu Gudda is 20 km from Yellapur, close to Magod Falls.
After a difficult bike ride, we reached Jenukallu Gudda. The first time I visited this place, it was past sunset and all I could see was the feeble glow of the sun that had already set. But this time, I managed to get there just in time to view the sun playing hide and seek with the clouds, which offered the most stunning panoramic view of the hills packed one behind the other.
There’s a viewpoint here from where one could look at the entire valley. The viewpoint is atop a 500-metre-high cliff. In the valley, we also spotted River Bedti falling down a steep cliff. This is the Magod Falls. The view of the valley here is dramatic and gorgeous during sunset.
Our next stop was Magod Falls, which is only five km from Jenukallu Gudda. The number of vehicles we saw on the road did not exceed beyond a single digit. And we spotted even fewer people. At the waterfall itself, there was just another vehicle that had arrived before us, and in the one hour that we were there, less than a dozen people paid a visit.
The falls is a short walk from a forest department ticket window to the platform from where we could get a front view of the waterfall. At first sight, I instantly understood why it is impossible to walk to the base of the waterfall. In front of me, I could see Bedti river, also known as Gangavalli river, flowing through a sharp bend. The fall cascades down from a height of nearly 650 ft into a ravine that simply has no access to any animal less agile than a bird or a monkey.
Since it’s the monsoon season, the river was at its full flow and the brown waters indicated that it was being fed by continuous rains in the past few days.
We spent nearly an hour at the falls and looked at it from different viewpoints and photographed it from every possible location before heading back.